South Park: The Stick of Truth facing Nazi issues in Germany

South Park: The Stick of Truth, the videogame is facing delays in countries like Germany and Austria because of the controversial swastikas left in by Ubisoft. This means neither country will be seeing the release on Friday, regardless of reports suggesting Ubisoft had already taken care of this.

We had a feeling that the upcoming launch of the game would have some form of controversy due to the naughty nature of the series, and according to a note on the German Steam page, “the game contains an unconstitutional symbol“. This means they are unable to release The Stick of Truth on German or Austrian soil at the scheduled time.

In a report on the Rock, Paper, Shotgun webpage they mention how the German law prevents the depiction of Nazi symbols, as “symbols of unconstitutional organisations” may not be used. In fact, this can amount in a prison term of up to three years, as well as a fine.

We were under the impression that Ubisoft intended to remove all Nazi symbols in accordance with German law, but the German Steam store page states the game will not be coming out this Friday 7th March. Within the notice they state that there is no need to amend or cancel your pre-order, as a new date will be announced shortly, so we are hearing conflicting stories and suggest Ubisoft pull their finger out, that’s if they haven’t done so already.

Out now in the US, The Stick of Truth releases tomorrow in Australia and the majority of Europe this Friday, and reviews coming in suggest this is potentially a good game, although it could do with some balancing fixes.

Only last week we spoke about The Stick of Truth censor screen leaks prior to release, and discussed the numerous delays as this game was expected to emerge last year. The censorship restrictions for EMEA territories and the European censor screen recently surfaced from a user who managed to get a copy early.

Now that the game has started releasing, we hope some reliable reviews start coming in, and although we have high expectations for this new game we cannot wait to hear how this is being perceived.